We all know that most people are now turning to the search engines when looking for information, products or services and it is no surprise that the competition is becoming much fiercer as a result. Businesses are having to fight hard to earn a place on the first page of the SERPs and this goes for almost any highly searched phrase.

The two ways to get your website listed on the first page of the SERPs are SEO (search engine optimisation) and PPC (pay per click advertising). Both methods have their own unique benefits and drawbacks, some of which are much less obvious than others. For this reason, in today’s article, we will delve into some of these less obvious yet equally as important pointers to consider when choosing between SEO and PPC marketing.

 

 

Paid Ads Get Seen First

Most people already know that page 1 is where you want to be for promoting your business, but being at the top of page 1 is even more powerful as some people only click on the websites listed at the very top of the page. The goal, therefore, is to achieve high page 1 rankings for your most relevant keywords. You can use a tool such as Google Keyword Planner to help you establish which keywords produce the most traffic. The benefit of PPC marketing is that on the most popular search engines such as Google and Bing, the ads are displayed above all the organic results, including even the website in the No.1 organic position. This means the paid ads are seen first before any other results.

The real benefit to PPC though is that you only pay when a searcher clicks on your ad which means rather than paying a flat fee for advertising, you are actually paying for real visitors to your website. Hence, ‘pay per click’. Typically, the more popular the keyword you wish to target, the higher the cost of the ads. This is done through a bidding process against other businesses that are also bidding for the same keyword.

But Which Converts Better?

When it comes to popularity, statistics show that the first five organic search results receive around 65% of all the clicks. The likely reason for this is that most searchers understand the difference between the natural results and the paid ads. The ads are sometimes seen as less trustworthy due to the fact the business had to pay to achieve that listing, whereas the first-page organic results have achieved their position naturally through being relevant and trusted by the search engines.

However, there are many cases where paid ads actually convert better than the organic results. For example, people who are indeed looking to buy something, especially some kind of product, often don’t mind this more ‘salesy’ approach and will generally click on the ads over the organic results.

Where Can You Expect To See Faster Results?

An important factor to take into account is the time taken to achieve results. When it comes to ranking in the organic listings, this is a process that can take many months. SEO involves building up the trust and authority of a website and creating content on a consistent basis. As you can imagine this is a very gradual process and requires a lot of patience. On top of this, most search engines make it very difficult for new websites to get onto page 1 and outrank the already well-established websites that have been sitting there for years.

With PPC on the other hand, results can happen very quickly if you know what you’re doing and have the funds to outbid your competitors. For this reason, PPC is the best way to go if you are looking for short-term wins and SEO is certainly a more long-term strategy. However, if you have the patience for SEO, then the results can be very worthwhile and you can achieve that more ‘trusted’ feel that you might not necessarily get with paid ads. Remember also that once you are on the first page of the organic results, unlike paid ads, all the traffic your website receives is effectively free traffic.

Experiment with both

In the end, the decision is up to you and a good suggestion would be to try both methods simultaneously. A good way to do this is test paid ads while you are patiently waiting for your SEO provider to achieve organic rankings. This way you don’t have to wait months on end in order to start profiting from search engine traffic. PPC gives you the opportunity to start pulling in traffic almost right away. It is important to note also that some businesses are more suited for paid ads and others may benefit more from appearing in the organic listings. The short answer is to simply experiment with both SEO and PPC marketing and see which proves best for your business.

Visit http://kelsallseo.co.uk for more information.